It's a strong possibility that at this moment
in your medicine cabinet you have a drug that
can hook you just as completely,
injure you just as terribly as heroin or morphine.
I'm speaking of barbiturates,
the number one cause of death by poison in the United States.
Wake up a few hours later and you forgot how much you've taken.
Better make it three.
Does anyone have a Valium?
I can't believe the two of you are eating
in the middle of a crisis like this.
We're nervous, what do you want?
Then take a Valium like a normal person.
Today a Senate Health Subcommittee heard a series of
terrible stories told by people addicted to Valium.
A doctor from California said withdrawing from it felt as
though someone poured kerosene under his skin and set it afire.
Valium is America's most widely prescribed drug.
The FDA is warning doctors not to prescribe from everyday stress.
And then came Xanax.
Upjohn scientists succeeded in creating a
molecule that helps control anxiety disorders.
Acting on nerve cells in the area of the
brain which controls emotion and anxiety,
the drug is more selective in its action,
resulting in fewer side effects than older drugs.
Xanax, prescriptions number in the millions.
I'm very much afraid that the same kind of overprescribing,
the same kind of promiscuous
availability is occurring with that drug.